Including a love of video games on your resume could hurt a job applicant's chances of getting hired even if their skills are as good as other candidates. German psychologists came to this conclusion. The work was published in the Journal of Personnel Psychology (JPP).
In the experiment, scientists tested how employers perceived candidates' extracurricular activities at the initial selection stage. Participants were asked to evaluate the resume of a fictitious candidate for a customer service specialist position. All of the candidates' characteristics were the same, except for one item: in the “hobbies” section, one item was listed as “volleyball” and the other item was listed as “video games.”
The results were clear: candidates who listed video games scored lower on the employability index than candidates who listed volleyball. Furthermore, this persists at neutral and high skill levels.
In the “more advanced” version of the resume, the volleyball player is the captain of the team of the third national league, and the gamer is a participant in the Prime League for League of Legends, the official esports league of Riot Games. However, even the professional level of eSports does not offset the negative perception of video games.
The study involved 162 German residents, average age 32 years. Most respondents have higher education but only 4% have practical experience in recruiting. However, their assessments themselves reflect prevailing societal attitudes.
The authors emphasize that the results may be partly due to the job description's emphasis on communication skills. In this context, team sports appear to be more “socially relevant” than video games, even though modern multiplayer games also require teamwork, coordination, and leadership.
Research confirms that despite the growth of eSports and the recognition of gaming skills in the IT, analytics and engineering sectors, gaming is still considered a less “serious” activity. Therefore, applicants should be careful about how and in what context they mention video games in their resume – especially if we are talking about professions outside the digital environment.
Previously, scientists have named computer games that increase happiness.
